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I alluded to it late last week in a blog post, and a couple of people caught it. I wrote something about how SethSpeaks.net is winding down, and today is that day. This blog entry will be the final blog entry at SethSpeaks.net.

But before I wax poetic about the nearly nine years of blogging on the Twins at SethSpeaks.net, I am excited to tell you that I’m not really going anywhere. I am not done blogging about the Twins. Just a new start, fresh with a new look. I am really excited to announce that as of today, the TwinsCentric guys are starting a new Twins website called Twins Daily. Nick Nelson, ParkerHageman, John Bonnes and I are consolidating efforts. You will be able to find our writings in one spot, at www.TwinsDaily.com. So, be sure to check out that site and bookmark it!

What is Twins Daily?

TwinsCentric is kicking off TwinsDaily.com as part of a continuing effort to bring together a community of Twins fans and bloggers. We believe it will be a great location for terrific independent Twins coverage on the internet.

If you go to TwinsDaily’s Home Page, you will see a lot of information. You will find several Twins articles from the TwinsCentric guys as well as their Twitter feeds and links to comments, blogs and other Twins blogs around the Twins blogosphere. There will be anywhere from one to three new articles each day.

Come for the Content. Stay for the Conversation.

We are excited about the Forums as well. You will be able to comment on our articles, but you will also be able to comment on any Twins topics, minor league discussion (On the Farm), More Baseball topics, Game Threads and more. Hopefully the comments sections will maintain civility while not being afraid to have a good, quality, educated discussion. We hope it will create a fun and interesting discussion on these topics.

Blogs – If you sign up as a member of the site (which is free to do!), you can comment, but you can also create your own blog. You can customize your own blog on the site and develop your own content. Readers can view all blogs, and TwinsCentric will “promote” the best blogs to the front page for greater exposure.

There is much more to the Twins Daily site that we are still learning about each day. So, I really hope that you will become a daily reader and contributor at www.TwinsDaily.com. Hopefully you will Register and participate.

Gone, but not Gone

In May of 2003, urged on by some friends, I decided to start a blog. The story I have told all along was that I did an internet search for “Twins Dork.” I was bored one day and wondered what kind of information I could find on my favorite baseball team. The link took me to a new blog called The Twins Geek. From there, I learned about Aaron’s Baseball Blog. I figured I had some knowledge on baseball and the Twins and could write a little bit, why not try this “Blog” thing! Of course, back then, not many even knew what a blog was. That’s when SethSpeaks.net was born. At the time, it wasn’t just a Twins blog. I wrote about all Minnesota sports, and TV shows and movies, and pretty much everything I wanted. However, the best feedback and the largest readership came when I wrote about the Twins.

Back then, I was happy to get 20-25 hits a day. That number gradually increased over time. SethSpeaks.net has opened up so many opportunities for me, as well as helped me meet so many great people. It was pretty cool when the site got mentioned in Sports Illustrated a few years ago. It has allowed me to gain some readership and an audience that has bought some of my Prospect Handbooks. I have gained friendships with so many Twins fans, bloggers, writers, media types and many players as well.

But as life gets more and more busy, it has become more and more difficult to maintain SethSpeaks.net. Believe me, when I went a day without writing, I truly felt guilty. Part of the site was that it wasn’t a ‘pretty’ site. It was rough. Most probably don’t know that I had to write each day’s blog in one document, then post it into an Archive page and then onto the main SethSpeaks.net page. Then I started up the WordPress site (talkintwinsbb.blogspot.com) a few years ago because it gave me an RSS feed and allowed for comments. So, once it was entered into SethSpeaks.net, I also had to enter it onto the WordPress site, then grab that link to post back to the other pages to link for comments. In other words, it was a mess and by myself I just did not have the time to find a better way.

So, I am sure that some might be disappointed that SethSpeaks.net will no longer be my primary site. That said, I wouldn’t be moving to this other site (TwinsDaily.com) if I didn’t believe in it 100% All four TwinsCentric writers are a little different but provide really good Twins content. What will my role be on the new site? I’ll have some administrative duties throughout a week, but in terms of content, what you found at SethSpeaks.net, you will continue to find at TwinsDaily.com. That includes a ton of minor league information. In fact, if you click here, you can see that there is a SethSpeaks.net page and you can set up an RSS Feed so that any time I post a blog, you will see it.

I am also really excited to let you know that some Twins minor leaguers will be blogging at TwinsDaily.com. Minnesotan and former Gophers SS and Twins 25th round pick last year, AJ Pettersen, will be writing. Left-handed reliever Tony Davis will also be writing about once a week. Last year’s Appalachian League Pitcher of the Year, Tim Shibuya, will also be writing from time to time. I’m still hoping that several more players will write as well. (Note that you can get RSS Feeds for their blogs as well. And secondary note, to all Twins players and minor league players, if you would like to blog, please feel free to do so!)

SUMMARY

It has been incredibly cool, and life-altering (to some degree) to write almost daily at SethSpeaks.net for almost nine years. It is a huge part of my life. I really hope that those of you who have read SethSpeaks.net will start heading to TwinsDaily.com, become members and participate to whatever degree you are comfortable.

Thank you for all of your support throughout the years, and I hope that will continue! I welcome any feedback you may have, so please feel free to e-mail me or use the Comments Section!

I think this is a genious idea. Honestly, I can’t understand how you guys find time to keep up blogging. I will really miss my daily one-stop minor league summations during the summer that i found at your previous site. Best of luck and thanks for providing such a great service! I will miss sethspeaks however! It was a daily stop for many, many years.

I’d say that you can expect the same, daily one-stop minor league summations during hte season. In fact, along with those, we may have “bloggers’ from those affiliate communities willing to give us more information. And, we’ve got the player blogs whihch will be fun.

Small Sample Size critique of Twins Daily:
Likes–I’m happy for you and your compadres–I too started my day at Sethspeaks and never bothered to bookmark the other Twinscentric bloggers, but I’d navigate via your links every day. Hopefully combining forces will help keep all of you in the biz, with much less effort–and maybe even lead to a little revenue!

Dislikes–I was actually a big fan of your simple, old school formatting. So far the Twinsdaily site is a little busy for me. I’m kind of reluctant to comment because with so many articles and links, I’m afraid I’ll just forget where I commented and lose the thread, as it were. Also, I’m kind of accustomed to the SBNation style of community blogging, which I think is extremely well done. Hopefully this dog can learn some new tricks, because I appreciate the Twinscentric crew’s writing.

Likes–Having all you guys in one place truly is a boon, and I’ve certainly already bookmarked the site. Cheers!